Which Hat do successful SEOs really wear?

Black hat SEO isn’t something you tend to speak about in public: it’s like sex, it’s not something to talk about UNLESS you’re in a Clique of trusted friends. I can recall so many episodes of sharing “black hat stuff” one round of drinks after another, typically late at night – the later the better.

I’ve always found the “puritan” approach to SEO a public facade: when push comes to shove and the Client, behind closed doors demands results NOWOR ELSE, it’ time to deploy the heavy artillery… but then you may be operating (or thinking of moving into) a PPC environment (Pills Porno Casinos) and there is no way you can play the goodie 2 shoes and rank organically.

Hell is gonna freeze over before that happens

I have always hated this duality, I find it hypocritical. But that’s life for you.

SEO is a delicate balance between delivering the best possible results and using the most cost effective methods at the lowest price and risk

So as Chairman of SMXL 2017, I decided to feature a panel and talk about the unmentionable: Black Hat SEO.

One of the panelists is Craig Campbell an experienced SEO with 15 years under the belt and the attitude it takes to tackle the ever more complicated profession. I asked Craig to write up a summary of his presentation I’m pleased to share with you today.

You might wish to come to Milan and see him and the other panelists speak about the dark side of digital marketing and Black Hat SEO.

Our latest addition to the panel: Bill Hunt who promised to share a few “tips” on how to go about SEO… There will be no tweeting or sharing out of this session. It is an absolute requirement.

I have more stuff in the pipeline to share – if you’re interested you’re still in time to purchase tickets and have a great time in Milan – Use the promo code

SPEAKER-INT for an additional 10% discount.

What Craig has to say about being a successful SEO

So what hat do SEO’s really wear? I’m my 15 years as an SEO I probably spent the first 5 years cutting through the rubbish that is mentioned online making five years worth of mistakes trying and testing everything I was reading online. It cost me a fortune in terms of both time and money. In life I like to do things ethically so I was going down this ethical white hat route at the start, waiting for Google to rank me.

I began to realise that this whole white hat and black hat is just a load of crap. I started to realise that there is so much fluff in this industry and that it’s more of a common sense approach that has to be taken. Don’t believe all you read from so-called specialists, and certainly, don’t take everything Google says for granted either.

Googles terms of service state that building a link or manipulating Google can lead to a penalty, yet they confirm that Link Building is still one of the main ranking signals, so that is a contradiction right away.

So my presentation in November at SMXL Milan will be going through a number of things to demonstrate and show how SEO really works for me, I don’t class my self as a white or black hat, just someone who ranks well and drives traffic to websites. And I will be providing some of the tools and strategies I have used to build myself up over the years and show you what actually works in terms of SEO and dispell any myths that people may still believe and provide people with some actionable takeaways that people can go and implement on their own websites.

More on this and other sessions I’ll be moderating at SMXL coming soon!